Lumen creep

[Poppy]

DO NOT TRUST/BELIEVE THOSE CLAIMS. The FL1 standard allows run time claimed to include dimming to 10% of the light level at start. And that assumes that your light & battery match the test unit.

My Acebeam E70 runs at the 650L level LONGER & BRIGHTER on a 3000mah battery than it does on a 5000mah battery. At the 180L level the 5000mah battery runs longer, as you would expect

<SNIP>

You might try that test with a different set of batteries, and/or, make sure that they are each fully charged before you start the test.

 

[bykfixer]

I understand the lumens creep 3-g is speaking of. Only it's not flashlights for me. See, I had an anaemic overhead light in my kitchen for years that played out one day. On the other side was a ceiling fan that sizzled when the light was turned on.

Now I went to a big orange box store and bought an adjustable overhead industrial type lamp and a small square one. The adjustable says it's 7k lumens capable of reducing to 35% of that (a bit less than 2500). The little one is 1000 and uses a dimmer switch. I dialed down the adjustable to 35% because the 7k was just ridiculous. The Mrs uses the small light at about 50% almost always but I'm using the 2450 lumen light more and more simply because it lights up the entire room very well with so much light it even lights what used to be shadows due to all those lumens bouncing off of semi-gloss painted walls. Even under the overhead cabinets are shadow free anymore.

Both lights have super frosted covers so they disperse light nice and even. For a while I used to get my kicks and giggles with my super frosted 2200 lumen ProTac light, and when the duty requires still do. But when I'm out in the shed looking for something I still do it the old school way. If I'm going to stay out there to fix something I click on the 6@ 300 lumen COB lights mounted at various places because shadows are such a pitb at times.
We can do that now-days.

 

[parang]

Get a light that is more of a thrower IMO, instead of chasing lumens, if you want to stand in one spot and scan your spaces.

 

[fuyume]

My guess from actually timing run times is you will get 7.5 - 8.5hrs at best of real or close enough to real 350L time.

I take all manufacturer's claims with a grain of salt, but you say this as if 7.5-8.5 hours of runtime at 350 lumens is not in and of itself impressive. There are no higher capacity commonly used batteries that a 5000 mAh 21700. If Fenix claims 10 hours plus for a light and it actually delivers 8 hours, you are welcome to try to find a device that has better performance with the same battery.

Ten years ago, you'd be hard-pressed to get more than an hour at 350 lumens.

 

[Jim 1965]

Because I have no use for it. Im a watchmaker by profession in a well lit shop & do go out at night much. 80lm is plenty of light & the simple On/off is very convenient/intuitive. When I need a bright light I carry either MD2 or now Hound Dog. Most of the smaller lights with turbo modes dont sustain that output & that type of flashlight just isnt for me. Nowadays there are some really great 1x21700 lights out there that can sustain 1000+ lumen for over 1 hour but If I need something bright I dont mind it being bigger for better runtime & throw & better ergos.

Im really looking forward to the 2x21700 body for the HD and am still looking for a 4x21700 sustained 4000-5000lm single emitter searchlight w. carry handle. Thats about it for bright flashlights.

That makes perfect sense, as long, as you have a bigger light when you go outside lol. What is a hound dog I haven't heard of that one. Thanks Jim

 

[vicv]

That makes perfect sense, as long, as you have a bigger light when you go outside lol. What is a hound dog I haven't heard of that one. Thanks Jim

Why? My favourite and most use light is between 150 and 200 lm and lasts maybe two hours on a charge. I can see as far as white as I ever need to outside.

 

[Jean-Luc Descarte]

That makes perfect sense, as long, as you have a bigger light when you go outside lol. What is a hound dog I haven't heard of that one. Thanks Jim

Hound Dog is the name of a Malkoff flashlight model.

 

[Olumin]

Why? My favourite and most use light is between 150 and 200 lm and lasts maybe two hours on a charge. I can see as far as white as I ever need to outside.

Worth mentioning that judging by the runtime & your general preference thats probably an incan & Id bet a well focused 200lm incan throws better then most LED lights double that output.

 

[bykfixer]

The 14 lumen aa minimag incan smokes the aa LED warm model with 57 lumens for the LED.
Runtime? Well that is a different matter…

One thing about a throwey incan is the lack of spill allows the contrast between light and dark to appear more narrow so it ends appearing to look brighter at a distance.

 

[vicv]

True and that's what I mean. I'm was only saying it was silly to ask olumin if he had a "bigger" light to use outside. My point was that what he had was probably plenty for both. That being said malkoff m61 modules are not very throwey given the small op reflector

 

[bykfixer]

My old 2D Bianchi (B-Lite) has a bulb that puts out probably less than 30 lumens but lights up a small object a good long ways away. Like 75 yards. It's crazy how bright that thing looks.

I suspect part of the reason the SureFire 6P was so popular was due to the 60-ish lumen output being able to temporarily blind folks from 50 feet IN THE DAYTIME. lol. But the light bulb has an advantage where it uses all 270 or so degrees of light from the globe to throw light forward. The LED about 180 degrees max.

I would suppose that's my a light with the fuel sipping Yuji appears brighter than the numbers suggest, because it's more like a light bulb in shape. I put a Yuji in a AA minimag with old batteries and ran it 60+ hours before shutting it off. It still appeared nearly as bright overall as an incan version though not as throwey, probably due to the frosted globe.

 

[Poppy]

Wow! Trying to wrap my head around the statement that an incan is more throwey when focused, than an LED with an output of 2 to 4 times as great.

Knowing that the reflector to a great extent determines the amount of throw vs spill, I tried to find two lights with similar sized reflectors and similar outputs in LED, and incandescent.

The closest I came was the 3D maglite in incan and LED. So I did the math to compare manufacturers advertised number of lumens, and cd for the incan VS the LED.

Interestingly, I found that the incan produced 1.4 times as much cd per lumen than the LED. Mr. Fixer's explanation of why sounds reasonable.

edit:
When I compared distance in meters / lumens, the incan produced 2.3 times as far per lumen. I don't understand why there is such a difference, but there it is.

 

[CHNeal]

I find my lumen needs creep as my need / desire for longer throw has increased. For several years a hicri 200 lumen HDS did all I needed, then I actually moved down in max lumens and have carried a Peak eiger as my primary light for the last 2 years.
Now I find myself needing brighter and brighter to see what I want to see over what I need to see. I no longer find the " how low can I go and still see" interesting or fun. Now I want to actually see what there is to see.